How to do the running
Running needs almost no equipment and punishes almost every shortcut. Nearly every running injury comes down to the same thing: doing more, faster, than the last few weeks earned.
- Type
- Cardio
- Level
- Beginner
- Equipment
- Running shoes
- Works
- Calves, Quadriceps, Hamstrings, and Glutes
- Also worked
- Hip flexors and Abdominals
- Also called
- Road Running and Jogging
Before you start
- Start from where you actually are, not from where you were two years ago.
- Pick a route you can repeat, so week-to-week comparisons mean something.
- Walk for five minutes before you start and let the first kilometre be slower than the rest.
How to do it
- Run at a pace where you could hold a conversation. Most of your weekly distance should be at this effort.
- Keep your cadence quick and your steps landing under your body rather than out in front.
- Stay tall through the hips, shoulders relaxed, arms swinging front to back rather than across your body.
- Finish feeling like you could have done another kilometre.
Cues that help
- Easy days easy, hard days hard. The middle is where injuries come from.
- Increase weekly distance by around ten percent at most, and take an easier week every fourth week.
- Shorter, quicker steps on downhills — that is where the impact load is highest.
Common mistakes
Running every run at the same moderate pace
It is too hard to recover from and too easy to improve from. Slow most runs down and let one be genuinely hard.
Adding distance and speed in the same week
Change one variable at a time so that when something hurts, you know which one caused it.
Ignoring a niggle for a fortnight
Most running injuries announce themselves quietly first. Two easy days now is cheaper than six weeks off.
How to progress it
Build weekly volume gradually and let pace follow on its own. A useful pattern is three weeks of small increases followed by one week back at around 70 percent, repeated. Once weekly distance is stable, add one faster session — intervals or a steady tempo — but only one.
How to track it
Log distance and duration for every run. Pace falls out of those two, and the chart worth watching is weekly distance, not any single run.
Log your running
Opens the cardio form with Run already filled in. Free account, no card.
Running questions
How often should I run?
Three times a week is enough to improve and easy to recover from. Four or five works once your body has months of consistent running behind it.
What pace should my easy runs be?
Conversational. If you cannot speak a full sentence, you are running your easy days too hard.
Should I track heart rate or pace?
Either works as a check on effort. Distance and time are the two numbers that actually accumulate into fitness, so log those first.